Dec 27, 2010

Thick and creamy lick-the-bowl good! This soup is loaded with potatoes, broccoli and cheese. A one-pot meal your whole family will love, ready in under 30 minutes.

Warm, creamy, broccoli cheese and potato soup.

Brrr!!

Snow Day!!

It's a blizzard out there, the East Coast got slammed with snow and winds and even thunder and lightning in some places. Almost everything shut down here in New York and the tri-state area today.

Being snowed in, I was craving something warm, hearty and satisfying and this soup hit the spot. I don't think my photo captured how good this was. My whole family devoured it, even my one year old. Luckily, I had all the ingredients on hand so I didn't have to plow my car out to head to the store. The ultimate comfort food in a bowl.

In a large soup pot, melt butter. Add chopped vegetables and sauté on low heat until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add flour, salt and pepper to the pot and stir until smooth.

Add chicken broth, milk and potatoes and set heat to high until it comes to a boil, then cover and cook on low until potatoes are soft, about 10-15 minutes.

Add broccoli florets, parmesan cheese, and stir well. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Cook uncovered until broccoli is cooked, about 5 minutes. Add cheddar and American cheese, stir well and remove from heat.

Using an immersion blender, quickly blend part of the soup for a quick second or two. If you don't have an immersion blender, remove about 1-2 cups of potatoes and broccoli, place it in your chopper, then add it back to the soup. This helps thicken it a bit.

YUM YUM YUM! I love broccoli cheese soup but never order it in restaurants because who knows how much cream and full-fat cheese they put in there. Your recipe looks absolutely wonderful, delicious, and healthy!

I stumbled upon this website and now so happy I did, Started weight watchers yesterday and your website is great to browse thru and realize that food can be healthy, good and low fat. Thanks Gina for your help,Kind regardsLisa

Can't wait to make this Gina! Yesterday was definitely a soup day, I was trapped inside also here in Brooklyn and whipped up a vegetable bean soup. This really looks delicious and decadent,I think I will make it as soon as yesterdays soup is finished! It is a great week to have some hot soup for dinner.

Gina, I wanted to thank you for this extremely yummy cents and senses appealing soup. I'm somewhat vegetarian and I am always looking for tasty recipes and I just love soups. I wanted to mention that the scraps used from veggies, carrot tops, celery ends, onion skins, etc can be used to make veggie stock. I keep a container in my freezer and add to it until I have enough to make some stock. I say, Why not!? You paid for those veggies, why not use all of it? When I'm done with making my stock I then take the veggie 'leavins' and into the compost they go! I just thought I'd toss out this money saving, calorie saving, earth saving idea.

I made this for our lunch today. It's only 11:00, but both my husband and I want to eat now! We love your recipes. These soups are especially nice because they don't make a huge pot. We're retired, and like having a different soup every couple days. I did use frozen because I don't have any fresh broccoli right now. It worked fine.

We just finished our lunch. It was so yummy and very filling. Both my husband & I love soups. They're an ultimate comfort food. I'll make your pork chops with shallots and mushrooms for supper. My husband grows shallots in his garden and stores them down in the basement where it's cooler. Shallots are wonderful with mushrooms.

Broccoli and cheese? Potato? YUM! You are the master, Gina! This looks great, and I certainly copied the recipe. Thanks, as usual, for sharing with us. I hope you had a wonderful holiday with your family and I hope your 2011 will be happy, healthy and fantastic! You deserve it!Best,Gloria

It's a wet rainy night here and this soup was just what we needed. Unfortunately, I didn't have any broccoli. But we did have a bit of left over ham from Christmas. I used a bit less cheese, too. My family was surprised I could whip up something so good from 'stuff in the refrigerator'! My husband said that I've made some good things, but this was one of the best!

This is a wonderful recipe! I am starting weight watchers and with recipes like this, I might actually be able to stick with it! I have really enjoyed looking through your website and this is the first recipe I tried. A great one to start with! The only thing I did differently was cook the broccoli for about 15 minutes instead of 5. It came out perfectly.

i'm so glad you mentioned doubling, anonymous. i was just gonna ask if anyone had tried that. i love having stuff in the freezer that i can just pull out and use whenever. good to know that it doubled nicely!!!!

I can't wait to try this. I have two holiday parties this week and everything I'm making is going to be WW friendly! Its amazing...when you have the right tools you don't mind doing the work! Maybe this go-round with WW with finally be successful!

We are loving this soup! I pureed it a little more with the immersion blender to make it easier for my almost 11 month old twin boys. They gobbled it up and so did we! Thanks for all the great recipes! :)

Made the soup tonight and it was very good. Making Filipino Chicken tomorrow night, so I broiled a few pieces of chicken that I had left after prepping. My husband, had two extra helpings, so I was very pleased.

My husband loves broccoli cheese soup, but we've had problems in the past reheating cheesy soups because the cheese breaks and it looks really unappetizing. But I don't like the idea of using Velveeta. Any problems with that in this recipe?

That had happened to me as well with broccoli cheese soup. Sometimes the cheese has a tendency to curdle if it is reheated fast. Try lowering the heat and letting it take a little more time to get to the right temperature! I know this is a super late reply....I just found this website :)

I had to make a double batch of this yesterday, as everyone in the family loved it so much the first time I made it! I added a touch of dry mustard and a dash of hot sauce for a little extra "sparkle". My daughter says it's better than Panera's! Thanks so much for posting this. We love your recipes!!!

I plan to make another pot full this weekend that I can portion out for easy pack lunches.

OH MY this is so amazing. I have never made a homemade soup before, and broccoli cheddar is my absolute favorite. I order it at one of my favorite restaurants when I go home to the midwest to visit my family. However the restaurant version is extremely unhealthy. I can't believe that this is a healthier version yet still is very flavorful and filling. I don't have an immersion blender (I'm a beginner) so I'm assuming it is not as creamy as yours. However, it still tastes really, really good. Thank you Gina! I can't wait to try more.

o. m. g. i just made this soup and it is SOOOO yummy! i LOVE your site and have passed on the web address to friends of mine from high school who i'm doing a 'get healthy' group with. keep up the delish recipes, gina!!!

Made this for dinner last night so that I could try out the immersion blender I got for Christmas. As always, delicious and perfect for a winter evening! :) Thanks again, Gina! Your site has really made a difference in my weight loss.

This is a wonderful soup: hubby and I enjoyed it as both a light super or a hearty lunch! Love this site: it has made my weight watcher's journey very easy. Marg, down 50# between May 18/10 and Jan 4/11 :-)

Gina, this is a wonderful soup! I really enjoyed it and so did my boyfriend! I love your website and I love your recipes :) I'm looking forward to trying some more ! I received this one through email while I was in Budapest and said to my boyfriend that we had to make that soup when we would be back home...I'll be making this soup, again and again!

This soup is incredible. I will probably never order it "out" again. I made it for my family to sample so that I could make soup for a friend going through chemo and my husband and I fought over the leftovers. She mentioned that broccoli and protein calm her nausea. She LOVED it!

Thank you so much for including the old points along with the points plus! My husband and I have been doing weight watchers on the old system and I am so pleased that you are still putting the points up. LOVE your recipes....it's the only website/cookbook I use anymore and my husband is always amazed that they are WW!

Gina,I made this soup tonight and boy oh boy did it get eaten fast!!!! I'm from Indiana and we are snowed in so I couldn't get all of the ingredients PLUS we have a family of six so I knew I needed to make more..... funny story I only had one can of chicken broth and beings how I had to double all of the ingredients I knew this wouldn't do. I had already chopped up the onions, celery, carrots, AND potatoes so I dug around the pantry and found two cans of campbell's chicken with rice soup.. LOL. I just used all of it figuring a little rice wouldn't hurt and I let it boil for a long while a voila! It was FANTASTIC!!!!! Thanks soooo much for this and all of your recipes. I heard about this site through a friend and really glad I found it! Hugs! Stephanie

Made this the other night and will not make it again unless I at least DOUBLE it! My 13 year old asked to try it....then asked for a bowl of it! Love that the points are figured out too! SO nice to have some new foods to add to the mix. Thanks!

We got 5 inches of snow on Sunday night and have been iced in for nearly 3 days now! I made this tonight to help warm us up and it is utterly fantastic! When I noticed it only made 4 servings, I figured there wouldn't be any leftovers. Boy was I wrong! It was SO filling, we each only had one bowl! You never disappoint me, Gina!

this is the first time i have commented! just wanted to say that we made this soup for lunch, on a cold snowy day, and it was delicious!! i have a four year old and a two year old, and they both downed it! :) thank you!

Just made this soup, and i have to say OMG its the best soup i have ever tasted and its going to be a regular of ours now.... if you havnt made it, do it asap because you are missing out big timethanks for posting this recipe :)

I didn't look to see if anyone else has suggested this - but I have made this recipe twice now and I have frozen portions both times and they thaw out beautifully. The first time I made it I only had 1 small potatoe and one large sweet potato on hand so I made it with those 2 and I would like to suggest substituting a sweet potato for one of the white potatoes. It was so delicious! I crave it every day and my kids (7,12,17) all LOVED IT. Those little rascals ate my leftovers the first time I made it! Great recipe. If we could give recipes star ratings I would give this 5 stars!

Gina, this recipe looks amazing! I'm gluten intolerant, though--could a cornstarch/water mixture be used instead of the flour to thicken the soup? Or would you just recommend omitting the flour? Can't wait to try it!

I'm getting ready to make this...I'm so freaking excited. I made the pot pie soup last week and it was so good...my husband even took the leftovers for lunch! Your recipes are saving my butt...with 2 under 2 I don't have a whole lot of time to think of a meal and point it out!

This was wonderful! I made several changes but only because I didn't want to go to the store! I used onion powder instead of an onion, minced garlic instead of cloves, and instead of sharp cheddar I used 2% Mexican cheese blend. I'll have to try it with sharp cheese to see if there is a big difference. Also, I do not have a immersion blender so I threw in the chunks of broccoli and potatoes in a mini food processor. Next time I will use a blender to really blend all the foods together. Thank you, Gina for an awesome recipe!!!

I just made this for lunch for my hubby and I and OMG it's sooooooo good!

I used shallots instead of the onions and aged Gouda cheese with a bit of Dubliner Cheddar (it's what I had on hand) and it came out great. (The cheese was full fat and the milk was 1% and it still came to 7 points+ per serving.)

Gina,I realize you live in the U.S.A., I live in Canada and some things are not the same. What is the difference between american cheese and regular cheddar. We don't have american cheese in Canada. we have light or skim milk cheese. a little advise please.Gail

WOW! I had to comment on how delish this is. I just made it to send my husband off to work with something yummy/healthy. It is only 10AM here and I want to eat it right now. Actually I really wished I doubled the recipe!This is such a keeper - Thank you Gina!I used frozen broccoli and it worked beautifully.

Just wanted to say that I am also from Canada and we do not have American cheese here so I just left it out and used the 1 1/2 cups of sharp cheddar. It turned out amazing, you still get that yummy cheddar flavour and it also reduces the Points+ value by 1. I've made this soup three times now and can't get enough, it's delicious.

@gailtayloramerican cheese is a processed very mild cheese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheeseI didn't have this so I just put in a little extra cheddar. Like Kim said--still amazing! will definitely be making this again.

Wow! This soup is amazing! As I was making it, I was a bit skeptical about the amount of chicken stock/milk, thinking it needed a bit more. I stuck with it and in the end, it was perfectly thick and creamy and tasted great. Even my picky husband loved it!! Thanks Gina

Amazing. This came in handy tonight, even though it was 90 degrees outside. But with the rain and storms it was perfect. This will be a staple in our home. My son devoured it. I'm excited for leftovers, perfect for "Meatless Mondays" (I used veggie broth, just for that reason)....

Absolutely delicious! I just finished making it & I'm just loving the flavors. I think it needed very little salt & pepper because of the other flavors & I replaced the processed American Cheese with low-fat Colby Jack. I'm looking forward to eating this soup for a while since it freezes well too. Thanks!

Gina, I really enjoyed this soup! The potatoes took a long time to cook but I think it was my fault for leaving them too big. I loved the taste and texture of this soup and will surely be making it again. My only complaint was that when the low fat cheese melted it stuck to everything and I really had to scrub to get it off. Oh well, a small price to pay for a hearty vegetable packed soup that tastes amazing! Thanks again for sharing these awesome recipes! I'm loving your website!

I made this tonight after dinner for lunch for the weekend and my 5 year old was my taste tester. He tasted it and had a thoughtful look on his face and said, "Mommy, can I have just a small bowl of this now?" Great recipe, thanks.

My husband, my newborn, my skrinking waistline, my tastebuds, and our stomaches thank you. thank you gina, really, I have been using your recipes for a while now and I can't believe how great they ALL have been. Thank you.

Dear Gina, I use my crock pot as much as humanly possible. Can this recipe be adapted? I'm tempted to chop everything fine, toss it all in, stir it up and cook on low all day. Would that totally screw it up?

I just found your website on the weekend, & I have downloaded so many of your wonderful recipes, every one is very simple to make & sound delicious, can't wait to start trying all your recipes in the New Year. Merry Xmas & Happy New Year to you & your family. Thx. again.

I'm totally obsessed with soups and this one is definitely going to become a regular in my house. I used 1 cup of 2% Mexican blend cheese and 1/2 cup 2% cheddar because that's what I had in the frig and it was still amazing!

Wow!! Yummmmm. I added some cauliflower that I wanted to use up (half a head), an extra carrot and an extra celery stick or two. Also added an extra 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock (kept the cheese the same) and it fed my family of 5 tonight (including 3 smaller kids servings) and we have enough for lunch for my husband and I tomorrow. Thanks for the recipe, so happy to have found your site.

This soup is amazing! I made it with broccoli and cauliflower. For those of you who don't have an immersion blender, just let the broccoli simmer a bit longer in the pot (I let the broc/cauli combo simmer about a half an hour) so it had a chance to cook down and get really smooshy. Then just took my potato masher and the soup was really nice and thick, just like I like! Thanks Gina for everything you do!

I've had this recipe bookmarked for several months now and finally made it tonight... it was FANTASTIC, I only used 1 tsp of butter and did not use the American Cheese either as I try to avoid processed foods... and it all still tasted delicious... as a note, I even liked it before I added the cheddar cheese and might try that in the future to reduce the fat content even more. Thank you for sharing this with us all!

Made this for dinner last night and it was DELICIOUS! Just ate the leftovers for lunch. Thank you for the recipes...we've tried several and have been pleased everytime, even my picky husband! Thank you for the inspiration to cook a bit Skinnier. I recommend your site to everyone - the recipes are so straightforward and the beautiful photography is great. THANK YOU!!

I had to modify because I used what I had on hand. I used one white potato, probably 5 cups of broccoli (since I needed to use it up), only 1/4 cup of sargento shredded cheddar, 4 cups of veggie broth, and 4 tsp of "sprinkle" parmesan. It came out to about 150 calories for a cup and it made 6 cups. This was really delicious so thank you!!!

This is the second recipe I tried from Gina's site. I wanted to try another one to see if I'd get hooked...and I think I am! I made this for dinner tonight and it is delicious! I'm not on WW but am trying to eat healthier, so for our guilty pleasure, I made some bacon to crumble on top of the soup! Mmm, good!

Just finished this for Sunday lunch. I made it thinking i would have it all week. However my daughter and husband loved it so much it was gone in no time. My 12yr old said "mom you know i am a soup fart but this is really good" for a tween.. that is stars. next time i am going to try a pinch of cayenne in it for my own taste. Thank you so much for a great recipe.

Just made this soup last night for myself and my boyfriend (pickiest eater and not usually a soup eater) and we both loved it! I love that you don't use any heavy cream in it too... Thanks for the recipe, I love your blog!

Just made it and it was hard not to eat it all!! My 2 year-old daughter (who does not like veggies AT ALL but totally LOVES cheese) could not get enough of this soup!! Definitely excited to make it more and more and for more people.

BTW, I live in Germany right now so access to Cheddar is limited to say the least so I used Gouda and it was awesome. Also used organic whole wheat flour and that was great as well!

This soup is so easy to make and is the ultimate comfort food! I'm happy to say that it also freezes and reheats really well. I froze a small batch to test and it still tasted as good as the day I made it. I normally don't like to freeze cream soups because they tend to separate, but I think being low fat actually helped in this instance! Thanks for another great recipe Gina!

I just wanted to say thank you for keeping such a wonderful blog of all your recipes! I'm a student, so it can be really hard to prepare healthy meals when there's so much other stuff I'd rather be doing. A lot of your recipes have minimal prep time, and it's awesome <3

I just found your blog (through Pinterest) yesterday, and am already in love with many recipes...I made this soup just a few hours ago (it's rainy and dreary here), and it is SOO good! I even made it with Lactaid fat free milk, and it was still awesome! I can't wait to try more of your recipes....Love how everything is organized on Pinterest - thanks for putting it all out there for us to share!

Great soup! Tastes very similar to panera bread broccoli soup which I love. I can't call it a 30 min meal though, definently closer to 45-50 with all the chopping. I also had to use a blender which takes a bit more time. I added more stock too because mine was a bit thick. My one year old licked her bowl clean!

I LOVED this soup! My husband & I gobbled up the whole pot in one sitting so I shared it on Facebook and Pinned it. After posting on FB, my mom made it for herself, my sister & my 1 year old niece who all raved about it! Thanks so much!!

I just made this for lunch. DELICIOUS!!!! With a slight modification to increase to amount and the addiontion of cream cheese, this is the best broccoli potato soup I have made. Very good. Two thumbs up!

I made this last week-a single batch while my husband was away on business. The kids inhaled it, and we didn't have enough left over for another meal. Tonight I made a double batch-the husband and kids have demolished it-I *might* have enough left for me to have for lunch this week while they're at work/school :)

Made this over the weekend and swapped out the potatoes for cauliflower. I can honestly say I like it better than with the potatoes (first time I made it - only potatoes; second time - one potato, 1/2 head of cauliflower; this time - only cauliflower). It's somehow creamier. I'm eating a bowl right now and I still love it. I wish I could have it every day!

Made this today and love this soup. Followed the directions except had only non-fat half and half and regular cheddar in the fridge which upped the calories. But will be about 8 servings here. Thank you for a delicious recipe!

I made this soup for my husband and I tonight and was so excited. However, it did not turn out the way I was hoping. The texture turned very grainy rather than creamy when I added the cheddar cheese. Do you think this could be because of the brand of cheese or because I used pre-shredded cheese? I used Sargento 2% Sharp Cheddar. The flavor was great I just couldn't get past the grainy texture. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Thanks for all the great recipes. I stumbled upon your site at the beginning of the week and have made a vegetarian recipe every night so far. All have been top notch, and have received high praise indeed from my meat eating - healthy food averse husband!

Gina, thank you for all the great recipes. We actually had a rainy day here in Arizona, and this soup was perfect. I have been feeding my family with your recipes for a while now, and they have all been hits. I have never blogged before, but I just had to tell you I think your work here is great!!

made this for dinner tonight with a few twists. I used sweet potatoes instead of regular. Added boiled/sauted/sliced spicy sausage. Also left out the american cheese. came out great!!!!! thank you so much for a wonderful recipe!

Made this for dinner last night. Yummy!!! Doubled it for good leftovers. I used frozen broccoli and it turned out well. I left some larger pieces and put the rest into the blender. I grated the carrots in zest side of the grater so you'd still get the flavor but not the huge chunks.

Gina--I've made around a dozen or so of your recipes and I ALWAYS love them. On top of that I convert them all to gluten free when need be. For this recipe I used the Cup 4 Cup gluten free flour blend to sub for regular flour but since it' such a small amount of flour you could just use straight up rice flour. I don't think cornstarch would be as good as rice flour in this recipe. I also used a frozen broccoli/cauliflower mix I had. I was out of celery so I used celery salt. It was absolutely amazing. It made a lot more than I thought. I had a bag of shredded carrots so I used those instead of chopping a carrot stick. Also, I blended this soup quite a bit (I liked it smoother). This is absolutely amazing and I want to thank you for helping me make the WW journey that much easier. I've lost 15 lbs. and have 15 more to go....almost there!! :)

Made this last night when I was so in the mood for broccoli soup. It is delicious and very satisfying...thanks for posting. I didn't have the American cheese slices and just used a little more of the cheddar.

I made this last night and it was fantastic! I used no-sodium-added chicken broth and just put a bit of salt in while cooking. The cheese and the pinch of salt were plenty for the flavour. I didn't have American cheese so just used cheddar. I will definitely be making this again!

Decided to try this tonight for my first time ever making a broccoli cheese soup. So good! Used a couple of peoples' tips of using 1/2 cauliflower & 1/2 potatoes, as well as using a potato masher instead of an immersion blender... worked out perfectly. Definitely adding to my recipe box. Thanks!

I have made this soup 5 or 6 times now. It is a total hit at my house and my 9 & 11-year-old kids beg for it which makes me very, very happy since it's loaded with veggies.

I have also made a very large batch (tripled the recipe) and taken it to share for a soup potluck at our church.

Having said that, here are a few things I've discovered:* If you do not have an immersion blender and are using a regular blender or food processor to blend this soup it works much better to do that BEFORE you add the cheese. The first time I made this recipe I did my blending after adding cheese and it made my food processor a cheesy mess that was difficult to clean. * Same goes for crock pot cooking. When I made the triple batch for church I cooked the soup on the stove top as written in the recipe following all steps EXCEPT for adding the cheese. Then I used my food processor to blend the soup a few cups at a time and after they were blended I dumped them into the crock pot. I left the soup on low (or buffet setting) just to keep it warm and then just added the cheese about an hour before serving it. * Feel free to be generous with the veggies, especially if you are blending them all up. I almost always double the amount of veggies (with the exception of the onion) called for and it tastes just delicious. * This soup does actually freeze well. I wasn't sure with the milk and cheese but we had leftover once that we couldn't use before leaving on vacation so we froze it and pulled it out a couple weeks later and it was just as tasty as if it were made fresh!

I made this soup in hopes that my children would love a soup other than Ramen Noodles (no such luck). I was "stuck" eating this entire batch myself, for the most part. Not a problem because it was DELICIOUS and FILLING and I did NOT miss the meat! The only thing I had a problem with was the serving size. A cup and a quarter is too much for me. I tried dividing the serving size by 5 so I could figure out smaller portions, but that made each quarter cup result in one point. So I wasn't sure where the extra point came into play. But that's such a small problem considering I WILL be making this soup again! It did freeze well, though fresh is always the tastiest. Love this recipe, thank you!!!

Thank you soooooooooo much for all these delicious recepies. I have a little problem, I don't know how to count the points and I have to loose 15 pound that I gain in Quiting Smoking. Can you please help me what that, I eat everything that you make because its tasty and Healthy. I don't want to be s stick but want my shape back. Thanks

Gina this soup was delicious! Instead of using the american cheese slices i substituted with a bit more reduced fat cheddar. My sister who loves these kinds of soups told me it was better than the soup from BJ's restaurant! I love that it's delicious and I can eat guilt free. Thanks so much for your amazing recipes!

I am wanting to make this but my daughter is lactose intolerant. Has anyone made this with lactose free milk and sliced lactose free cheese? Were there any texture issues? I have not been able to find lactose free shredded cheese. Thanks.

This was delicious!!! Definitely will make again, and keep some stocked in the freezer. I felt like I was adding too much salt to get the right flavor....so I switched it up and mixed in about 1/2 TBSP of Dijon mustard. It did the trick!

Big Yummers from me! This will be repeated. Made exactly as directed, except used a gourmet salt blend and thre in a Parmesan rind. I also blended just a it more than directed for a comforting, lovely thick soup. Thank you!!!